The Darfur Olympics
Posted by michellemoquin on August 17th, 2008
Women are strongly on my mind this week. Can you tell? Unfortunately, I have even more disturbing news when it comes to the women of this world. And I must blog it. As much as I like to talk about the good happening, this is a part of life too. Lately it seems that abuse has gotten worse, escalated…but maybe I am just more informed. Actually I am more informed. I am reading more and there is no excuse not be with the power of the internet.
I wish that I had something more cheerful to report but like everything there is usually a rainbow somewhere even if we can’t see it immediately….there is always hope….a dream of something better.
So…women and girls of Darfur….I wonder about you. I wonder how you live on a daily basis in the refugee camps. I wonder how many of you have lost your men while they try to collect firewood only to be captured or killed leaving you to fend for yourselves and your children. I wonder how often during the day when you go out to collect the firewood yourselves, you get raped by the Sudanese militia. I wonder what you do in the middle of nowhere and how you deal with boredom. I wonder how you live with the constant fear. I wonder what your thoughts are. I wonder how I would survive if I were you.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6JVKk0DpLs&hl=en&fs=1]
The Janjaweed, government sponsored militia, are on a campaign of slaughter, rape, starvation and displacement in Darfur. Since February 2003: ’200,000 people have died due to violence, starvation and disease. More than 2.5 million people have been displaced from their homes and over 200,000 have fled across the border to Chad.’
Sexual Violence in Darfur is not just a series of random acts. Just as in the ‘honor killings’ that take place, they are not just domestic violence acts, they are something more. In Darfur, these rapes are a weapon of genocide. These women need protection. They live in constant fear. The Peacekeepers that are there are failing because there isn’t enough resources and they are being stretched too thin to really protect these women.
While China hosts the Olympic Games touting peace, harmony and brotherhood, they blindly back the Sudanese Government and allow the brutality of these women to continue. And while the Chinese Government relishes in the delight of the Olympics, they continue to sell Sudan weapons that enable these horrific acts of violence.
These women could probably care less about the Olympics. But the one thing that they may dream about…something that gives them hope…is the Darfur Olympics. What? Yeah that is what I asked. I wish that I had heard about this earlier but better late than never.
Since August 8, the Save Darfur Coalition held their own Olympics, ‘dream for Darfur’, and each day showed a different part of life in Darfur, from ‘How the refugees live’ to ‘Women in Darfur’, my topic for today. Although the ‘Darfur Olympics’ ended yesterday with their ‘Closing Ceremony’, a video showing juxtaposing images revealing the anguish underwritten by China – with images from the promo materials for the Olympics….the atrocities are far from over.
How can you help? Go to the website, read and learn. Write to our Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and ask her to help deploy peacekeepers for Darfur. Help the women in Darfur to be able to protect themselves so they can go back home with their families and return to their lives. We can not sit back while sexual violence rages the women of this world. We need to demand protection.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello Affah: I agree with you about Moslem women and I even extend that to all of the women of this world. We do need to be heard and it is venues like this that we can talk and release the stories that need to be told. Thank you for telling yours.
I am sorry about your sister – how devastating for you. I can not imagine having to put a smile on your face in celebration of ‘saving honor’. The warnings are not to be alone with men and yet it is the woman’s fault when she is raped?! How backwards is that? It is disgusting. The women have no choice.
Hi Al Zhahra: Thank you for sharing your thoughts, your life. You are correct. I can not imagine what it is like to be a prisoner and to live as you do. What we see on TV and what your life is actually like are far different.
ZL: Hey – Thanks for chiming in. Good to hear from you. I feel the same way that you do….I have no answers….and it is very frustrating. I feel helpless. And I imagine that the women of Islam and many other parts of the world such as Darfur and Chad feel the same way…
Islamic Woman of Saudi Arabia: Hello. Evidently you feel the same way too. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I hear you loud and clear. My heart goes out to you, to all of the women that have written in to me, and to all of the women that are unable to but still suffer daily. I hope that the reach that I have through my blog will help…that people will do something.
Readers: What will you do today to protect the women of this world? What will you do to say ‘no’ to the violence against women?
Peace out….
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle ?
Aka BABE: Your Bad Ass Bitch Editor
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August 17th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Fat-Loss Pharmacy
Harry G. Preuss, MD, CNS
Georgetown University Medical Center
Weight-loss “pills” often are viewed with skepticism and for good reason. Many are ineffective… some even are dangerous. But a few nutritional and herbal supplements do work. Some offer bonus health benefits, too. These natural substances have been scientifically shown to aid weight loss by helping the body burn more calories and fat… reducing appetite… improving how the body handles blood sugar… and blocking absorption of fat and carbohydrates.
Laboratory, toxicologic and clinical studies — and years of everyday use by millions of people — demonstrate that these supplements are safe. However, it is prudent to take any supplement under the guidance of a qualified health professional. All of the following are available in health-food stores unless otherwise noted.
GREEN TEA EXTRACT
Green tea contains catechins, a class of powerful antioxidants. EGCG is short for epigallocatechin gallate, the most abundant catechin in green tea.
In a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition in 2005, Canadian researchers gave one group of men a supplement containing EGCG and caffeine and another group a placebo. Those who took the supplement burned 180 more calories a day — a level that could help a person shed 22 pounds in a year. For those already at their normal weight, studies show an EGCG/caffeine supplement can help maintain weight. (Previous studies had shown that an EGCG/caffeine combination burns more calories than either EGCG or caffeine alone.)
The combination works by stimulating the sympathetic nervous system, which helps regulate appetite, temperature and many other metabolic processes, including calorie-burning and fat-burning. However, unlike potentially heart-damaging weight-loss herbs, such as ephedra, which also stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, a therapeutic dose of EGCG/caffeine doesn’t increase heart rate or significantly boost blood pressure.
Dose: 575 milligrams (mg) of green tea catechins (with 325 mg from EGCG) and 100 mg of caffeine a day. Supplements with this mixture include Schiff-Natural Green Tea Diet and Universal Nutrition Thermo Green Tea Caps.
Bonus: EGCG may be neuroprotective in humans — it has reduced the severity of Alzheimer’s disease in laboratory animals genetically programmed to develop the disease.
CLA
Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a type of fatty acid — a building block of fat. It is found in small quantities in meat and milk. CLA can help the body lose fat and build muscle.
In a study conducted in Norway and published in the The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 149 women and 31 men received either CLA or a placebo daily. Within three months, the CLA group lost an average of five pounds of body fat and gained two pounds of firming muscle — without dieting or exercise. The placebo group had no change in body composition.
In a study published in the International Journal of Obesity in 2006, people who took CLA for six months — from August 2004 through February 2005 — experienced no weight gain during the November-December holiday period. People who didn’t take CLA gained an average of 1.5 pounds during the holidays.
Researchers don’t yet know exactly how CLA works, but it may stop dietary fat from entering fat cells.
Dose: 3.4 grams a day.
Bonus: In a study conducted at the University of British Columbia, people with mild-to-moderate asthma experienced a complete normalization of their airways when they took CLA, which decreases inflammation.
MCTS
Medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) are a type of fat. Triglyceride molecules are typically arranged in chains, with carbon atoms as the links. Most triglycerides you eat are long-chain triglycerides, with up to 24 carbon links. MCTs have only six to 12 carbon links. During digestion, long-chain triglycerides combine with transport molecules and travel in the circulatory system, where they’re deposited in fat cells. Because of their unique length, MCTs don’t require transport molecules — they move directly from the stomach to the liver, where most are instantly incinerated for fuel (and very few are stored as fat). This unusual digestive process increases calorie burning.
In a study conducted at University of Manitoba in Canada and published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 24 men who took MCT supplements burned an average of 100 more calories per day, compared with men who took a placebo.
Dose: MCT is derived from coconut oil, a saturated fat. There have been concerns that MCT supplements could increase cholesterol levels. The MCT formulation used in the study above includes cholesterol-lowering plant sterols — and lowered total cholesterol by 13% and LDL (bad) cholesterol by 14%. This supplement, Slim Smart (www.nfh.ca), is available for sale only through health professionals.
CHROMIUM
The trace mineral chromium increases the number of insulin receptors on muscle and fat cells, helping those cells utilize blood sugar more effectively. The body uses blood sugar to build muscle, storing less of it as fat.
In a study of overweight women, those who took chromium supplements while on a diet and exercise program lost weight the healthy way — 84% as fat, 16% as muscle. Those who didn’t take chromium lost weight but 8% as fat and 92% as muscle.
Losing muscle rather than fat is the sad fate of many dieters. (Evolutionarily, your hunter-gatherer body is programmed to lose muscle, to preserve fat stores in case of famine.) Muscle burns many more calories a day than fat, so you end up with a body that burns fewer calories. Post diet, you return to a normal level of eating but gain weight. Chromium can help prevent this common metabolic problem.
Dose: 600 micrograms (mcg) daily, until you reach your weight-loss goal. The maintenance dose — for lifelong blood sugar balance — is 200 mcg a day. Caution: Too much chromium can cause major side effects, such as anemia, kidney failure and liver damage. Ask your doctor if chromium is right for you.
Bonus: Because it regulates blood sugar, chromium can help prevent or normalize type 2 diabetes.
STARCH-BLOCKER
An extract of white kidney beans, a starch-blocker, limits the action of alpha-amylase, the digestive enzyme that breaks down starch in the intestines. In a study conducted in Italy, 60 overweight but healthy people received either a starch-blocker or a placebo for 30 days while on a diet of 2,000 to 2,200 calories per day that included lots of starch, such as bread and pasta. Those taking the starch-blocker lost an average of seven pounds… those taking the placebo didn’t lose weight.
Dose: A dose of 300 mg, taken right before each meal, with eight ounces of water. Look for a product with Phase 2 as the starch-blocker. It’s the most widely studied starch-blocker.
HOW TO CHOOSE
With a health professional’s guidance, choose one or two supplements that fit your weight-loss goals and lifestyle.
Example: A person eating a lot of carbohydrates might take a starch-blocker to cut absorption and chromium to balance blood sugar.
If after two months or so the selection doesn’t seem to be working, stop taking those and try another one or two supplements.
August 17th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Hi Mischa, just rec’d your message on my blog from yesterday, thanks for the words, I have to actually remind myself next time (after saying ‘just stop’) that I would never ever be as harsh as I am to myself to anyone else so why do I do it to myself(?), it’s so unproductive.
I’m over it now though and totally loving Newport, RI, found that Zen meadow I’d dreamed about a few months ago, it’s here, weeping willows, Japanese maples, European Beech, and many more…hmmm…
And my friend here, she’s like a pal/mother I never had : ) very helpful and easy to hang with, we’ve been very busy since I arrived and the weather is gorgeous.
Now about that situation in Darfur, and the plights of our other sisters the world over, I just set up auto alerts for feeds on global women’s situations and I’m hoping to learn more through those about exactly what can be done to help with awareness and with the situations in various nations. I guess I feel slightly less helpless now…
Chillin’ on a sunny Sunday aft, Zen Lill
August 17th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
I continue to get this message “Duplicate comment detected; it looks as though you’ve already said that!” When I try to make an entry.
Shana
August 17th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
This is crazy. when I click on your blog sometime I get the white background and sometimes I get a gray background with nothing but the side blog instructions.
August 17th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Okay I don’t know why it want take my post. I will try to post to the previous date if it doesn’t work this time.
Michelle
Sir
I have just completed my first circuit run in the Raivon solar system. It is composed of 14 planets with numerous moons. Most of the planets inhabitants have long since used up their planets resources or polluted their planets beyond habitation so they now live on the moons of the planet.
For some of the planets the moons that they have occupied are so distant as to have created distinct evolved beings. Tal says that happened because of the physiological influences of the moons on sequence generations. The result is that the planet’s inhabitants look so different because of the different moons that they live on. They have different diets and gaseous needs.
It made me wonder what generations of earthlings would look like after they became generations of moonlings. It is incredible! All the climates on the moons are different from what the planet had and different from the other moons.
It seems that they split up and each took different moons. They were not able to communicate or travel to the other moons. The trips were one time excursions. Some did not make it to their moon of choice. They either exploded in route or crash landed on the surface.
We are providing for the first time in 18,000 years the opportunity for the people of the mother planet Unviel the opportunity to visit the people who went to the other 9 moons. The reunions were stiff at first, but the recognition of the same artifacts from their mother planet has thawed them out and they seem to be truly rejoicing in their reunion.
The physiological differences in some cases are so startling that it is almost impossible to believe they had the same ancestors on the planet unviel. Speaking of the planet Unviel, the reason we arrived here is that our instruments showed that it was a planet that would be inhabitable to humans.
Their pollution and destruction of their planet as a place that could sustain their life forms created a planet that can now sustain human life. The overhead ozone layer that their pollution created has acted to produce a very green and ice capped planet. It is about twice the size of earth but pristine in every way. We will return to earth and bring animals and sea creatures to occupy its land and seas.
Tal says that we must insure not to bring any of the earth’s insects as they would have not nature enemies here. We are at present devising a subchamber to delice the animals and sea creatures that we bring aboard. The planet has some bird life. It seems that only the birds were able to withstand the changes by the formation of an ozone layer on a planet that previously had none.
Sir
Shana
I tried to post the above. It acted as if it posted but it was not there. I am trying again. I tried and it still didn’t post. I get this message instead “Duplicate comment detected; it looks as though you’ve already said that!”
August 18th, 2008 at 12:08 am
DON’T SHRUG OFF SHOULDER REPLACEMENT SURGERY
Joint replacement is almost ho-hum these days — at least when it comes to knees and hips. But only about a tenth as many shoulder replacements are done as hip or knee replacements. One reason for this is that even among physicians, the buzz is that shoulder replacement is difficult and not very successful, something it’s best to avoid. But as I recently discovered, the buzz couldn’t be more wrong. A new study from Johns Hopkins in Baltimore revealed that shoulder replacement surgery actually has fewer complications and shorter hospital stays than either knee or hip replacement. As to the success rate, the study concludes that most patients who have shoulder replacement are only sorry they didn’t do it sooner.
ARM YOURSELF WITH FACTS ON SHOULDER REPLACEMENT
To find out more I called one of the country’s leading experts on shoulder problems and repair, orthopedic surgeon Peter J. Millett, MD, MSc, who directs the shoulder program at the Steadman-Hawkins Clinic in Vail, Colorado, and who was formerly the co-director of the Harvard Shoulder Service. He confirmed that fewer shoulder replacements are performed — in large part because the need for them isn’t as great. The reason: Arthritis, the malady that erodes joints and often makes them unbearably painful, doesn’t affect the shoulder as frequently as it does hips and knees… since we don’t walk on our hands, we don’t wear down the shoulder as much as we do our lower joints. But also, shoulder replacements may be rarer because many people don’t realize it’s an option or they lack access to doctors who perform shoulder replacement surgery… and, there aren’t as many different repair options, such as partial replacements. Furthermore, few doctors have the training to perform the surgery and many have not seen the excellent results that can be achieved, so they are often reluctant to advise it for their patients.
As with all joint replacements — indeed, all surgeries — having an experienced surgeon vastly improves the odds that the operation will be a success. This is a particularly complex surgery, Dr. Millett says, so it is mandatory to find a highly skilled surgeon working at a major medical center or a medical center specializing in orthopedics only, who does a significant volume of shoulder replacements each year.
ABOUT THE SURGERY
The reason total shoulder replacement is such a challenging operation is that it involves removing the humeral head (the top of the upper arm bone)… replacing it with a new prosthetic ball… and then resurfacing the shoulder socket (the glenoid) by affixing a second dish-shaped plastic component to the shoulder blade, explains Dr. Millett. The shoulder is smaller and more complex than knees and hips, so it is more difficult to place the prostheses exactly right. Access to the joint is complicated by the numerous nerves, tendons and blood vessels in the area. Also, the anatomy of this joint varies considerably from person to person so standardized parts don’t fit well. Dr. Millett says that prostheses today are more flexible and can adapt to the individual’s structure, but placement of the implant is still very demanding from a surgical standpoint. Done properly, shoulder replacement results in a high-functioning shoulder with excellent durability of the implant. And most important, the surgery immediately and reliably eliminates the arthritis pain — Dr. Millett has seen patients wake up from surgery pain-free for the first time in years.
After surgery, patients can begin to move their shoulder immediately, though they generally remain in the hospital for two days. Several months of physical therapy will be necessary to gain full functioning and range of motion. Dr. Millett says that most patients can raise their arm by six weeks and resume full activities after three or four months. Although patients experience the most dramatic improvement in the first four months, Dr. Millett says that progress continues for a full year — by then patients can return to their previous activities, including, for some, doubles tennis, skiing and golf. He cautions that excessive overuse of the joint will wear it out faster, but he says he has had patients who returned to jobs that require repetitive overhead lifting, and they’ve done so without harm thus far.
WHO SHOULD CONSIDER REPLACEMENT
You may be a candidate for shoulder replacement if you have significant arthritis with pain that is disabling or interfering with sleep and functioning of the shoulder. Since arthritis is often age-related, Dr. Millett says the surgery is also mostly for older patients, who must, of course, be healthy enough to withstand it. Since prostheses currently are expected to last an average of 15 to 20 years, he usually advises waiting until at least age 50 — or even 60 or more if possible. While second-time joint replacements can certainly be done if and when the implants fail, those surgeries are riskier and more complex so younger patients might do better starting out with other procedures to relieve pain. For example, surgeons can arthroscopically clear debris from the joint… readjust tendons… resurface… or stimulate new growth of the cartilage that cushions the shoulder joint. In some cases patients even choose to have their shoulder fused to eliminate pain — but there’s significant compromise in that option. It stops the pain, but also severely limits shoulder function.
Dr. Millett is eager to dispel the notion that shoulder replacement doesn’t have good outcomes. People who’ve done their homework to find a highly qualified surgeon and who commit themselves to healing properly and working hard on their physical therapy have described the operation as being “truly life-altering,” he says.
Source(s): ??Peter J. Millett, MD, MSc, director of shoulder surgery, Steadman-Hawkins Clinic, Vail, Colorado.
August 26th, 2008 at 9:51 am
[...] The Darfur Olympics [...]